Thoughts for the Day

Jesus said, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

The phrase 'do not be afraid', appears at least 350 times in the Bible! Perhaps, then, there was some justification for a man or woman never knew when their life might be taken from them, through violence or the failure of crops.

But all too often we worry for the sake of worry. Walter Kelly, writer of a comic strip, once said: “When I don’t have anything to worry about, I begin to worry about that".

We should be concerned about the future and plan to do all that we can to overcome problems, but if we wake up in the night with our brains chewing over some irrational worry about what might happen tomorrow, well that is ridiculous. All it will do is give us an ulcer and a sleepless night, so we cannot operate properly the next day.

There's a funny little poem by Elizabeth Chaney written in the 19th century, that goes like this::

'Said the robin to the sparrow:
‘I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.’

Said the sparrow to the robin:
‘Friend, I think that it must be
That they have no heavenly Father,
Such as cares for you and me.'

God will shoulder our worries if we give them to him!

Lord Jesus,
on that night in Gethsemane,
when You spoke to the Father
You ended with the words
"yet not my will but yours be done"
and accepted torture and death
for our sake.
May we be brave enough
to commit our future into Your hands,
rather than be caught in
the coils of perpetual worry.
Amen.